Birthday Letters In a Shoe Box

Good Wednesday morning!

Well, I did a "no-no." I got in the big gold van this morning and drove to Gadsden and had breakfast with Austin and his Grandmother. Oooh! Oooh! Call the campus "helicopter hovering" police! I didn't wait until the weekend to see The Boy!

We had a good time. He has 11:00 a.m. classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so we met around 9:00 for breakfast and some hugging and talking. He brought us a stack of JSU newspapers which contain HIS FIRST NEWSPAPER ARTICLE EVER! That's right! It has his name AND his title... "Staff Writer." Pretty cool, huh? Roxie and I don't really understand all of it because it's about the details from the football game against Georgia Tech, but it kept our attention to the very end. Mainly because we were looking for typos... but we read every word nonetheless.

THE PUMPKINS ARE HERE! THE PUMPKINS ARE HERE! I saw the first pumpkins at Food Depot this afternoon. They are HUGE... probably because we had so much rain this summer. I am buying one this weekend. I can't wait, nor can I help my excitement. There is just something about a giant orange pumpkin, Charlie Brown, that I cannot resist. Oh, to have a little one to take to the Great Pumpkin Patch. Heavy, heavy sigh.

Before we get to Wednesday Wisdom, I wanted to talk a little bit about my MamMa Smith. When I thought about which quote to use today, she came to my mind. She's been gone a little over five years now. She passed away when she was in her early 90s.

When I think about MamMa when I was a child, I remember her being an excellent storyteller. My cousin, Becky, and I would spend the night and she would tell stories about her two sisters and herself. Some were true and others... not so much, but we were enthralled (good word) with her tales.

In her later years, she did some pretty interesting things. She never drove a car, but well into her senior years, she rode on the back of a motorcycle with a cousin... and enjoyed it very much. During those years, she also decided to try her hand at pogo stick jumping. Luckily, a cousin caught her before an injury occurred since she wasn't a "natural" at pogo stick jumping. (Probably the same one who rode her on the back of his motorcycle.)

As I was looking at my "list" of things to do before I turn 90 recently, I thought about her and some of her escapades. The motorcycle and the pogo stick were obviously things on her own list. I doubt if she had written her list on paper like mine, but it was most definitely a list. Some little part of her that became a little part of me. That's what we get from family. The good, the bad, the funny, the sad... little pieces and parts from family members we know, and even from family we never met who lived years and years and years before we were born.

I look exactly like my Mom. I absolutely LOVE babies (all shapes and sizes) like my Dad. I'm a weather-watcher/news-watcher like my Granddaddy Bradley. I like telling stories like my MamMa Smith (some true and others... not so much).

I had originally planned on using a quote from a young friend of mine which would have gone with my thought process above. However, I was unable to get in touch with her Mom to make sure it was okay to use her name on the blog. (I'll use her quote next week when I get permission. It's really, really good.) But being the Resilient AND Enchanting Belinda, I did find some words of wisdom to share with you today.

Wednesday Wisdom - Our 16th President, Abraham Lincoln said, "And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years." I love that. I may not be jumping on a pogo stick when I'm in my 80s or 90s, but look up... You may just see me zip lining across the horizon! (I hope I got that trait from my MamMa Smith, too.)

Birthday Letters In a Shoe Box

This idea was taken from another favorite book... 15 Minute Family Traditions and Memories by Emilie Barnes.

"When I was 21, my mother presented me with a very special birthday gift. Wrapped beautifully in a shoe box were 21 letters Mom had written to me. She had started this tradition the first year of my life, and it was her secret until my 21st birthday.

"The letters contained memories of the funny things I said and did over the years, the struggles during the teenage situations, times we spent together, differences we had, tears shed, and the love we enjoyed."

Now, this may seem a daunting task if you have elementary age children and you've never written a letter, but there isn't a rule about when to start this tradition. If you have an eight year-old girl and her birthday is coming up, write her a letter, seal it and put it in a box for her 21st birthday. Do the same with her younger siblings. It's not the number "21" that's important. If you give your child a box which contains only five letters, that will be a wonderful gift. But start this year. Make it a seasonal tradition you stick with, and give a most special gift on a most special birthday!

Have a wonderful Wednesday! Stop by tomorrow for another fun-filled, inexpensive date, Weekend Family Fun and don't forget... SURVIVOR TOMORROW NIGHT! TV Reviews will begin on Friday!

Take care, and I'll talk to you tomorrow.

Sincerely,

The Enchanting Belinda